Europe | A worrying turn

Turkey wants the EU to regulate the döner kebab

Germans’ version would not qualify, and they are steaming

An employee scrapes meat from a kebab skewer in a Doner restaurant in Germany.
Photograph: Getty Images
|Istanbul

Turkey and Germany have tussled over issues like Turkey’s human-rights record and protests by Kurds in German cities. Their latest dust-up concerns the döner kebab. Two years ago, Turkey applied to the European Union to have the döner, made from seasoned meat roasted on a vertical spit, protected under the bloc’s “traditional specialty guaranteed” (TSG) scheme. If the EU agrees, the döner would have to be prepared to Turkish specifications, including the type of meat (beef, chicken and lamb are fine, veal and turkey are not) and how it is marinated and sliced.

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This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “A worrying turn”

From the September 28th 2024 edition

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